THE ROLE OF ACCUMULATED FEEDING EFFECT OVER THE CONFLICT FEEDING BEHAVIOUR OF DAIRY EWES OF DIFFERENT AGES
Zhana Peeva, Ivan Dimitrov, Milena Mihaylova, M. Dzhorbineva
Agricultural Institute – Stara Zagora, Bulgaria
janant24@abv.bg
The purpose of this study was to establish the role of accumulated feeding effect over the conflict feeding behavior in dairy ewes of different ages. The conflict feeding behaviour expressed during the rack feeding was recorded in 40 ewes from the Synthetic Bulgarian Dairy Population of different age, respectively at I-st (two years old), II-nd, III-rd and IV-th lactation (five years old), each represented by 10 animals, reared all together in a flock of 250 dairy sheep. The social conflict activity during feeding was recorded in the experimental animals that have been fed firstly by intensive grazing at pasture (for three hours) and then consequently by limited amounts of bulky feed – alfalfa, for 30 minutes in five consecutive days. All animals were betting on average 1 kg green alfalfa and secured front of 50 cm per sheep. The following behavioural reactions during feeding were recorded such as number of conflicts – won and lost. It was established that feeding with restricted amounts of bulky forage after intensive grazing of three hours (accumulated feeding effect) caused conflicts between ewes of different ages. The sheep of two years age (I-st lactation) have been the most passive animals in taking place for the first twenty minutes of feeding. Ewes of this age have lost most frequently the conflicts during feeding and for this reason had less feeding time in comparison with other ages, in spite of the accumulated feeding effect. Animals of all ages have revealed similar conflict feeding behaviour over the last ten minutes of feeding.
Keywords:
feeding behaviour; conflicts; accumulated feeding; age; dairy sheep
|
